Petrovskoye

In 1939 the village of Petrovskoye and the entire Petrovskoye County were part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray District, which before the Russian Revolution was outside the Pale of Settlement. Only 21 Jews lived in this area before World War II. However, with the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze Kray District became a destination of civilian evacuation or flight, including of many Jews from Soviet Ukraine and Belorussia. With the summer offensive of the German military at the end of June 1942, the Germans began invading the North Caucasus. The Wehrmacht occupied Petrovskoye on August 3, 1942. On August 4, 1942, the German administration ordered everyone in the village to hand over their weapons to the German headquarters. The Jews were required to appear immediately for registration. Right after the occupation of the village by German forces, the Jews were forced to resettle in barracks at no. 7 Turgeniev Street. According to Soviet sources, they were guarded by local collaborationist forces under the direction of the local elder and the mayor of Petrovskoye. The neighbors were forbidden to look into the courtyard of No. 7 Turgeniev Street or to visit those incarcerated there. Approximately 500 Jews were held in inhuman conditions in those barracks. The Germans and local forces beat and tortured these Jews. In September 1942 they were killed in gas vans and then their bodies were transported to their burial place on Baranachy Mountain. The Red Army liberated Petrovskoye on January 19, 1943.